Red Raider Gridiron | First Scrimmage Today and New Commit?

First Scrimmage Today:  Closed to the public, but the first scrimmage is today at 10:00 a.m. and head coach Tommy Tuberville (video) will give both QB Taylor Potts and QB Steven Sheffield about 25 to 30 snaps and he wants them to run the offense, and that he's not too concerned about the percentage completed.  The official site also has details on the fact that today is Fan Day and you can go meet the team and the volleyball team from 2-4 p.m. today at the United Spirit Arena.

Also note that CB Will Ford and OT LaAdrian Waddle are out with hamstring injuries and there's no timetable for their return.  Losing both of these guys for an extended period of time is worrisome, let's hope that these hamstring injuries are minor. 

Notes, Notes and More Notes:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that freshman OT Beau Carpenter continues to impress and make progress.  Here's Tuberville on the young offensive lineman:

"We’re so short on offensive line, I would imagine right now … ," Tuberville said. "He could be a starter. It depends on how he plays. He’s gotten a lot better. He’s just got to learn how to play on the speed of this game."

Snip

"He’s held his own, and I think we could win a lot of games with him," Tuberville said. "Being a freshman, he’s going to make a lot of mistakes, but right now we’re just trying to get him in the mode of playing and playing every down and getting a lot of looks at him."

New Commit? Sorry, Not a Commit, But I Can't Read: Last night I found the DMN's top 100 player list for the DFW area.  The current commits that made the list are OL Tony Morales and Alfredo Morales, DE Kindred Evans, and DB Freddie Warner. 

However, the thing that jumped out at me was that the DMN has LB Jeremy Stallworth (6-0/205) committed to Texas Tech.  I'm usually the last person to find out this sort of thing since I don't have a subscription to either RRS.com or RP.com, so this may just be a misprint on the part of the DMN.  Stallworth's Rivals (not rated) and Scout (3-star) profiles seem to indicate that Texas Tech is the only school on his radar.  ESPN's profile (not rated) has some video and I also found this bit from LoneStarGridiron about what he did on the field last year, as a linebacker for Newman Smith High School (Carrollton, TX):

LB Jeremy Stallworth 132 tackles 19 TFL 3 sacks 3 INTs 1st Team All-State

Anyone with anything else on Stallworth?  If this is true, then I'll do a full write-up later.

[Note by Seth C, 08/15/10 6:29 AM CDT ]  My bad, I can't read, I just saw Texas Tech next to Stallworth's name and thought I stumbled on something.  Still, it's strange he has an offer to Texas Tech (I guess), Texas Tech is his only school he's interested in, but he hasn't committed.

Gallington Drops a Few:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that RG Deveric Gallington is competing much more this year and much of it has to do with Gallington's weight loss:

So this summer, Gallington was all about self-control. No fast food. No juice. No giving in to the Gummy Bear Bandit.

It’s almost as if Gallington is threatening to disappear before his teammates’ very eyes. Less than a year ago, Gallington carried 354 pounds, a good bit of it around the middle. On Thursday, he weighed 310.

Also in the story is a bit about how Gallington and DT Myles Wade would workout together, boxing and playing basketball.  Tuberville had this to say about Gallington:

"Gallington’s done well," Tuberville said. "He’s had one bad day in terms of missed assignments, but that’s when we just threw a lot at them. He’s lost a lot of weight. All the offensive linemen have done much better just because of their weight loss. They’ve gotten a lot more endurance, and I think their mental capacity’s better just because of being able to go a little bit longer."

Scrimmage Thoughts:  RP.com's Travis Cram has a couple of additional quotes from Tuberville of what to expect from today's scrimmage:

"It’s going to be full speed," Tuberville said. "We’ll move the ball up and down the field like we normally do. We’ll have some kicking, some punting, and we’ll have field goals and extra points. But we want to get them in a situation where they feel tired and have to play and think. Know the speed of the game. Obviously it will be hot and we’ll want to get plenty of looks at out younger guys.

"We’ll run the ball some but we won’t run the ball with our top running backs much. We want to throw the ball to them some. We want to look more at their protections and teach the younger guys how to play on this level. We need to get a good look at all of our defense and make sure we have guys in the right positions and make sure they are still making decent decisions to this point. We still have a lot to learn."

After the jump, update on commit Kenny Williams, OC Brown's daily Twitter update and some interesting stuff from Tuberville on quarterbacks in the NFL vs. college.

Commit Update:  24/7's Gerry Hamilton was at Pflugerville Hendrickson's practice yesterday and tweeted these two bits about current commit, Kenny Williams:

 

 

 

OC Brown Daily Twitter Update: Yesterday was a good day:

 

Coaching Quarterbacks:  Yesterday was college football quarterback day at ESPN.  You guys and gals have already linked to the article from ESPN's David Ubben about Potts and Sheffield and I think I've seen where you've linked Ubben rank the Big 12 quarterbacks.  The article I found most interesting was from ESPN's Ivan Maisel with some interesting quotes from Tuberville.  Here's Tuberville:

"Everything is built around the quarterback," Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. "You play to their strengths. In the NFL, you have to execute. In college, if execution breaks down, an athletic quarterback can make a great play out of it."

Tuberville also talks about how difficult it is for a quarterback to read defenses in the NFL:

"In the NFL, you got no choice," Tuberville said. "He has to read coverages and get it off real quick. You can't make it if you can't read on the run. In college, you can take a great athlete and go with him. The defenses are not as complex. There's not as much audibilizing at the line of scrimmage. You got a scheme that you run and nobody can get you out of it."

Tubs also talks about why the running quarterback is more successful in the college game than in the pro game:

Hash marks: The NCAA hash marks are 60 feet from each sideline. The NFL hash marks are 70 feet, 9 inches from each sideline. The college game's wider hash marks give offenses more room to roam on the "field" side. That encourages the use of a running quarterback.

"In college football, you put your best players to the wide side of the field," Tuberville said. "An option quarterback forces the defense to defend the field."

I really enjoy reading things like this from a defensive coach in Tuberville.